Does Donald Trump Really Believe Climate Change Is a Hoax?

Of the myriad explanations that Donald Trump could have offered to explain why he pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accords this week—he thinks it kills American jobs, he sees it as an unfavorable deal, he finds the plight of the world's poor and the future health of the planet tiresome, etc.—one that was notably absent from his unhinged Rose Garden address begs a fundamental question that neither Trump nor his surrogates seem capable of answering: Does the President of the United States believe that climate change is real, or a hoax?

Here is Kellyanne Conway with George Stephanopoulous on Friday morning, after the administration evidently released her from whatever windowless White House basement office they've banished her to, sort of like a real-life Milton from Office Space, except more cheerfully and transparently dishonest:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does the President still believe global warming is a hoax?

CONWAY: The President believes in a clean environment—clean air, clean water. He’s received awards as a businessman in that regard. And
he made very clear yesterday what he doesn’t believe, which is that
the U.S. government should stay in an agreement that gives us too much
of a financial burden—too much risk to these industries where the
coal miners, people who work in cement, people who he looked in the
eye place after place, city after city, while he was—

STEPHANOPOULOS, TIRING OF THIS: Does he believe global warming is a hoax?

CONWAY, HITTING THE REPEAT BUTTON: He believes in clean air, clean water, clean environment. He believes that we have to negotiate better
deals for this country and that there’s a balance between
environmental protection and economic growth.

STEPHANOPOULOS, DYING INSIDE: I’ll ask one more time. Does he believe global warming is a hoax?

Here is Gary Cohn, the White House economic advisor who reportedly urged Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement only to get outfoxed by Steve Bannon and his merry band of isolationist loons, basically turning into the real-life version of the "This is fine" dog on live TV:

BLITZER: With all due respect, Gary, you’re not answering the
question: Do you know—have you discussed this with the President, does
he still believe that climate change or global warming is a hoax?

COHN: I’m answering what the President is committed to. I know he’s
very committed to his role as President of the United States and being
the leader. And he believes his number-one priority is to grow our
economy and to grow opportunities for our citizens.

The most painful exchange of all, though, came during EPA administrator and noted science-denying charlatan Scott Pruitt's press conference on Friday, when he dodged the question three separate times by carefully repeating the same set of non-responsive bullet points with the practiced air of a man who spent hours rehearsing in front of a mirror before leaving for work that morning.

BRUCE: Yes or no, does the president believe that climate change is
real and a threat to the United States?

PRUITT: You know, it’s interesting. All the discussions we’ve had
through the last several weeks have been focused one singular issue:
Is Paris good or not for this country? That’s the discussion I’ve had
with the President.

A follow-up question from the Washington Post’s Phil Rucker did not go any better.

RUCKER: I’d like to go back to the first question that you didn’t
answer. Does the President believe today that climate change is a
hoax?

PRUITT: You know, I did answer the question, because I said the
discussion the President and I had over the last several weeks have
been focused on one key issue: Is Paris good or bad for this country?
The President and I focused our attention there.

Sigh. Once more, from NBC’s Kristen Welker:

WELKER: You are the EPA administrator. Shouldn’t you be able to tell
the American people whether the President believes that climate change
is a hoax? Where does he stand?

PRUITT: As I indicated several times in the process, there is enough
to deal with with respect to the Paris Agreement and making an
informed decision about this important issue. That’s what our focus
has been on over the last several weeks. I’ve answered the question a
couple times.

Why are these smart, professional adults and also Kellyanne Conway willing to publicly contort themselves into rhetorical pretzels trying to pretend not to hear the astonishingly simple issue about which they're being asked? One possibility is that Trump does believe in climate change, but that he's acutely aware that he pledged during the campaign to at least renegotiate the Paris Agreement, and that backing down from that stance now would be another broken campaign promise that a profoundly unpopular president whose political future depends heavily on keeping his base engaged simply cannot afford.

Here is another theory, though: Donald Trump doesn't believe in climate change! There is ample evidence for this—remember, he once opined that the concept of global warming is a hoax created by China. Even if you want to generously allow for the possibility that he said that to establish his conservative bona fides, or that perhaps he's "evolved" since then, he certainly hasn't done anything since taking office to indicate that this is the case. Perhaps we can dispense with the need for these diligent reporters to get yelled at by the White House troll du jour any further if we agree to accept that the simplest explanation is also the likeliest. At some point, it's fair to infer from this baffling refusal to even acknowledge the question of whether Trump believes in climate change that the answer is a grim and ominous no.

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